Below is a description taken from ASA website. Without the Advertising Standards Authority, Advertising could become unfair, offend people and cause a lot of problems in the advertising industry. What I found interesting is on the website they name and shame the companies that haven’t listened to the complaints.
The ASA is here to make sure all advertisements are legal, decent, honest and truthful.
We are independent of both the Government and the advertising industry and we are recognised by the Government, the courts and other regulators such as the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and Ofcom as the body to deal with complaints about advertising.
Our work includes acting on and investigating complaints as well as proactively monitoring and taking action against misleading, harmful or offensive advertisements, sales promotions and direct marketing.
Just one complaint can lead to an ad being withdrawn and we’ve made sure the complaints procedure is as quick and easy as possible. If we uphold a complaint about an ad, the advertiser must withdraw or amend the ad and not use the advertising approach again.
We aim to resolve complaints as soon as possible and strive to ensure a healthy working relationship with advertisers and media owners. We work with the Committee of Advertising Practice to educate and train advertisers on the rules to help prevent problem ads from appearing in the first place.
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